Peschisolido gets Liberal nomination amid party turmoil

Senior B.C. party official and Steveston-Richmond East riding executives resign

BY JEFF LEE AND PETER O'NEIL, VANCOUVER SUN AUGUST 12, 2015


Yuan

Joe Peschisolido, a former Liberal MP for Richmond, was acclaimed at a nomination meeting.

Photograph by: Ward Perrin , Vancouver Sun

 

Chan


The Liberal Party of Canada’s decision to reject former candidate Wendy Yuan in the new riding of Steveston-Richmond East claimed a roster of victims Tuesday including the party’s B.C. membership chairman.

Michael Hillman, a longtime party officer, resigned his post in support of Yuan, who he said had been treated unfairly by the federal party. A few hours later, every member of the riding executive except one — who was on vacation — resigned as Joe Peschisolido, a former Liberal MP for Richmond, was acclaimed at a nomination meeting.

Hillman released a letter he wrote to Braeden Caley, the president of the Liberal Party of Canada in B.C., in which he called Yuan’s rejection “unfathomable”. (Caley is also the press secretary for Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.)

Hillman, who had been Yuan’s campaign chair in unsuccessful runs for the Vancouver Kingsway riding in 2008 and 2011, said he was stunned the party would turn their backs on a candidate who had single-handedly encouraged more than 6,000 people to take out party memberships over the years.

Meanwhile, former federal Liberal cabinet minister Raymond Chan angrily rejected allegations in a pair of sworn affidavits released by Yuan that he interfered to block her nomination and may have personally profited from his work as Justin Trudeau’s top organizer in the Chinese-Canadian community.

“This is ridiculous,” Chan told The Sun on Tuesday. “All the allegations are false and I never, ever asked people for money to speak, in any of my events for the party.”

Chan added that he had “nothing to do with” the party’s rejection of Yuan and the resulting acclamation of Peschisolido.

The party said Yuan was rejected as part of a review by its so-called green light committee, and said Chan wasn’t involved in the decision.

“In order to be approved as a qualified contestant, each applicant was subject to a robust and rigorous vetting process that includes verification of all claims made on the application,” said party spokesman Olivier Duchesneau.

Peschisolido had previously been elected in Richmond as a Canadian Alliance candidate, unseating Chan, a three-term MP. Peschisolido had been a long-term Liberal before joining the CA, but he later crossed the floor back to the Liberals. Chan defeated Peschisolido for the Liberal riding nomination in 2004 and won the seat again.

 
 Xie

Riding president Peter Xie is among the executives who resigned Tuesday. He said in his resignation letter that Peschisolido has won “neither the confidence of the Steveston-Richmond East Liberal members nor the confidence (of) the members of the local executives.”

A similar eruption took place earlier this year in Vancouver South, when members of the riding executive resigned after complaining that party brass were imposing a candidate on the grassroots.

In the latest case, Chan was responding to sworn affidavits from Xigen (Howard) Xu, the former campaign manager for Vancouver Kingsway Liberal candidate Steven Kou.

In one of them Xu, who said he had an acrimonious split with Kou in June, alleged that Chan told him in late May that he was planning to take unspecified steps to ensure Yuan didn’t get the nomination.

In the second affidavit, Xu cited phone conversations in May with Vancouver East Liberal candidate Edward Wong and Vancouver Kingsway candidate Steven Kou. He quoted both candidates saying that Chan, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s top fundraiser and organizer in B.C.’s Chinese-Canadian community, was “organizing a forum” and was asking candidates for $10,000 each to deliver three-minute speeches.

Kuo, according to the affidavit, allegedly told Xu he paid while Wong said he didn’t.

Kuo told The Sun Tuesday the allegation is false and that he never paid a cent to Chan.

Yuan said she was notified late on Friday night that the party had decided not to accept her nomination.

“This is all wrong,” she said. “I’m a very loyal Liberal. I don’t have problems with what Liberals stand for, but what we are doing here — what has happened — is not really liberal. We stand for democracy, openness, fairness, transparency — all of that is out of the door.”

Yuan also said Trudeau has erred in allowing Chan, an MP from 1993 to 2000 and then from 2004 to 2008, to become the sole fundraiser in the Chinese-Canadian community in the Lower Mainland.

She said she complained to the party in writing in March about Chan’s dominant role in fundraising, and said this is the reason why Chan allegedly opposed her candidacy.

“The party is making a big mistake by giving that kind of jurisdiction and authority” to a single person rather than a team.

“If we want to rebuild the party we shouldn’t have kingmakers”, she says.